


Passageway

by protectoroffaeries



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Deleted Scene, Hogwarts Sixth Year, of sorts anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 07:31:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7609303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco has a chat with a certain mudblood in one of Hogwarts' secret passageways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Passageway

**Author's Note:**

> Yikes! I've never written anything from Draco's POV before ~ he was more difficult than I expected. I don't know if he's quite nasty enough to Hermione, I fear he might be slightly out of character... oh well. I hope you like it all the same.

Hogwarts was full of secret passageways, although some were less secret than others. One Draco thought few people knew about crossed the castle at an angle, leading from the dungeons up and over to the fifth floor. It was something of a shortcut, considering if he didn't use it, he'd have to walk down and around to the staircases and fight with temperamental stairs the entire way up. From where it let out on the fifth floor, Draco could easily take a back staircase up to the seventh floor.

It came in handy during his sixth year, when he spent a substantial amount of time in the Room of Requirement. Draco wasn't keen on Crabbe and Goyle knowing about the passage, however; he made them take the long way. It was private, really. Draco’s secret passage. A secret he actually wanted.

Draco slipped into the passage after Potions one day - after making certain that Potter and Weasley had left. Potter had been snooping around more than usual as of late, and he was the last person Draco wanted to find in his passage. Potter thought the world revolved around him, that he just had to be involved in everything, but Draco’s life - and his mission - was none of Potter’s damn business.

Draco was in a foul mood before he entered the passage because Slughorn, the fat moron, spent the entire class kissing Potter’s arse and praising the brat’s mudblood mother. If she was actually so wonderful and gifted, Draco reckoned she wouldn't be rotting in the ground somewhere. 

The only good thing about Potter’s sudden proficiency in Potions, Draco thought as he started up the passageways’ stairs, was that Granger seemed thoroughly and completely pissed off about Potter’s glory. Draco smirked, remembering her face, bright red in anger. She deserved to have someone put her in her place, and while Draco wished it could be him, he still found it amusing when Potter did it.

“Who’s up there?” came a voice from behind Draco, snapping him violently from his thoughts. His smirk dropped. Someone had found his passageway. Shit.

Draco turned on his heal, whipping out his wand and murmuring, “Lumos.” The other party had the same idea, as they cast the spell at the same time. 

The first thing Draco noticed when the light shone on the person behind him was their Gryffindor tie, the gold glinting in the light and the red trying to bleed into the background. His eyes flicked upwards to see the face of this Gryffindor, hoping it wasn't Potter.

“Malfoy?” exclaimed Granger.

“What are you doing in here?” Draco growled. How dare she, a filthy mudblood, use his passageway. 

“This is the quickest way to my next class,” she said, still looking rather surprised to see him. “What are you doing?”

“The same as you, of course,” Draco said condescendingly, if not too quickly. Granger narrowed her eyes. 

“Well, hurry up, then, or we'll both be late,” she said impatiently. 

Draco didn't actually have a class; he had his free period, which was why he was heading to the Room of Requirement, but he couldn't very well tell Granger that. He could, however, make her late without getting himself into trouble. 

It was petty, but it wasn't like Draco had much to amusement in his life these days. Between the Dark Lord’s task and his father's arrest, he spent most of his time worrying about his impending death and/or his impending disgrace. 

“Have you ever been late to any of your classes, Granger?” 

“No, and I don't plan on starting because of you.”

Draco felt that smirk come across his face again, and he cast a nonverbal spell on the passageway, causing the entire length of it to light up bright blue for a split second. Granger looked furious.

“That had better not have been a locking spell, Malfoy,” she huffed, even though she clearly knew that it was. 

“I'm afraid it was. Poor little mudblood’ll have to miss a class… what will the teachers think…” he taunted. 

She shot a hex in his direction, but Draco flicked it away with ease. “Honestly, Granger, that was weak. Brightest witch of her age, my arse.”

Granger made a noise of frustration that was somewhere between a growl and a scream, and then she was storming back down the passageway. After she'd put a good number of steps between the two of them, she put down her bag and started rummaging for one of her schoolbooks. Draco figured she was looking for the counterspell to his locking spell, but he doubted she would find one. The spell had a time limit, and it would wear off after about a half hour, if Draco had done it right.

“You're wasting your time, Granger,” Draco told her.

“Shut up,” she snapped at him.

“You don't get to speak to me like that, mudblood,” he shot back.

“Shut. Up,” she repeated. 

Draco grit his teeth, his hands balling into fists and tightening his grip on his wand. He was deciding which curse to use on her when she opened her mouth again.

“It's the time-lock one, isn't it?” she asked, sounding irritated. “How long did you lock us in here for?”

Draco refused to be impressed that she recognized the spell. “Half an hour.”

“Why did you lock yourself in, too?” Granger asked. “You could've locked it from the outside.”

Draco was aware of that. His parents, mostly his father, used it to lock him in his room whenever he was bad as a child. “I would've had to beat you through the portrait.”

“Well, you are ahead of me.”

“Barely, at the time.”

“Your legs are longer than mine!”

“You would've jinxed me!”

“I wouldn't have known what you were trying because it's a nonverbal spell!”

Draco scowled. She had a point, perhaps. He hadn't had much time to think it through, though, in his defense. 

A tense silence filled the passageway as Granger cast another Lumos and began reading her book. Draco supposed she was reading the lesson she was currently missing. His plan wasn't working out as brilliantly as he'd hoped.

“Granger,” Draco said to distract her, “do you know why Potter is stalking me?”

It was a genuine question. Granger looked up at him, frowning. “Yes,” she said, but she didn't elaborate.

“Well?”

“What, Malfoy?” Granger sighed, exasperated. 

“Why is he so interested in me? Play for the other team, does he?” Draco sneered.

To Draco’s surprise, Granger laughed. “No, but even if he did, I doubt he'd be attracted to you.”

“Then what is it?”

Granger hesitated for a moment. “Honestly, it's… it's ridiculous…”

“What?”

“He thinks you're a Death Eater.”

Draco froze, which was probably telling enough, so he resisted the urge to grab his left forearm. How the hell had Potter figured it out? Well, from the sound of it, Granger didn't believe him. 

“Why would he think that?” Draco asked carefully.

Granger gave him a scrutinizing look, although Draco didn't think she could see his face very well, what with the distance and the dim lighting. “You are.”

“I'm not.”

“Malfoy,” she said, her tone oddly gentle, “I saw your reaction.”

“You don't know anything, you stupid mudblood!” he lashed out. “Not a damn thing.”

“What does he want you to do?” Granger asked, still speaking in that strange tone. 

“No one wants me to do anything,” Draco denied. 

But Granger put her book away and stood up, hoisting her bag over her shoulder. “Whatever Voldemort wants you to do,” Draco couldn't help it; he winced when she said his name, “you don't have to do it.” 

And she walked by him, presumably to wait at the end of the passageway. She couldn't begin to understand why he did have to do it because she didn't have an important family name or blood status or specific expectations on her shoulders. For a passing second, Draco was jealous of her. And then he instantly hated himself for being jealous of a mudblood.

“He'll kill me, Granger,” Draco whispered, half hoping she wouldn't hear him.

“We can help you.”

“I don't want your help,” hissed Draco, balking at the idea of accepting aid from his enemies. He didn't even want help from Snape, and he actually like Snape well enough. 

“I'm sorry to hear that,” Granger said, and then the bright blue light pulsed down the passage again. Granger was out of the passage before Draco could say anything else to her.

As he walked to the Room of Requirement, Draco wondered why she'd offered him a way out, now of all times, when he could no longer take it.

**Author's Note:**

> But why, you may ask, wouldn't Hermione say anything about Draco being a Death Eater? Might I suggest that she was giving him an opportunity to do the right thing?
> 
> It's kind of a touchy feely fic anyway, so why not?


End file.
